For the most part I eschew discussing the meatier news that comes out of a ‘con, because I know that by the time an actual PTR hits the potential delicious entree of awesome will turn into a bland tidbit of taste, if it doesn’t evaporate entirely like dry ice first.

This time I knew that people wouldn’t rise to the usual bait of BlizzCons past, getting frenzied from speculation and building castles made of sand from the cool-sounding ideas that were tossed out off the cuff.

I had faith in the cynicism of my peers in WoWland. Wiser heads shall prevail.

Time to throw that caber by the wayside, because they just keep pushing and pushing this one potential piece of kickass thought out in Blue posts, and I’m seeing excitement ramping up fast. Cool your jets.

“One of the potential ideas we’re considering for a new hunter ability is one where they send all 5 of their current pets to attack, for a short period of time, on a long cooldown. No guarantees that we’ll go with it, but we’re at least considering something like that.”

Um, what? Okay, am I awake? Or did I dream reading that just now? They don’t honestly expect me to believe they would really do that, right?

We’re talking about something that is completely hypothetical, so anything is possible.

I personally would want the ability to call the five pets that I actually have on hand at the time, since that would give me control over what everyone sees when I send out the stampede.

Furthermore, it makes a lot of sense for the spell effects to not vary much from hunter to hunter, so special abilities would be right out, *but* I wouldn’t mind seeing the pets going through their best motions.

Okay, Hunters? All of you but most especially Beastmasters that are following this and saying “Oh please oh please oh please?!?”

Take a deep breath.

Is it an idea worthy of excitement? Yes, of course it is, because it fires the imagination. If you dwell on the potential of Stampede as described and as hoped by Kaivax, if you start thinking about what pets you’d want in your stable to be called out by the spell, say a pack of five wolves, or a pride of powerful pussycats, or a who’s who of various T-rexes, or even one of every kind of spirit beast, why you can just go on like this for days.

That is exactly what makes a spell like Stampede the msot dangerous in terms of unwonted enthusiasm. The base idea allows for us to take it and run with it, getting all excited as we mentally explore the possibilities for us to make it our own within their framework.

Let me remind you of another BlizzCon, and another concept tossed out that fired our imagination.

They just tossed out this idea, Warriors could dual wield TWO HANDED WEAPONS as their max class talent. Isn’t that awesome? And now moving on to other boring things as though we never said that…

Credit to Blizzard, in the end they went through with Titan’s Grip. We can dual wield two handers. And yes, I did originally level my Warrior as Fury simply because of my enthusiasm inspired by that idea.

But what really happened?

When it was first implemented, it was just as incredibly OP as we all expected. It was amazing. And if you’re badass enough to dual wield two-handed weapons while Whirlwinding, shouldn’t you expect it to be?

But what happened next?

Balancing.

Which meant, after unleashing the full might of Titan’s Grip on the PTR, came the inevitable reigning it in and bringing it in line so as not to be too OP in overall DPS compared to other classes, who didn’t all get the same level of awesome.

They built in a big miss percentage, then brought it back down. Then they just nerfed overall damage output by 10%, then brought that back up.

The point to carry away from Titan’s Grip from first mention to final iteration, is that YES, we did get Titan’s Grip, BUT don’t go into it imagining that the pony or moose you thought you were promised will be what you actually get at the end of the 5.0 PTR cycle.

There is the first awesome idea, but there WILL come the inevitable balancing. Especially if the other classes don’t get something comparable.

Think of Titan’s Grip, and Stampede, and then think of the challenge that Blizzard faces with Mists of Pandaria.

It’s a challenge of bringing the awesome. They have to do it equally for all God’s children.

Blizzard is mommy and daddy, and the players are the kids. Mists of Pandaria is Christmas (or your festive gift-giving season of choice).

Blizzard CANNOT give one kid an Xbox 360, and give the rest slipper socks. Well, they could, with the sure and certain knowledge that the rest of the kids will cry and cry and cry.

Whatever brilliant idea for a class ability that Blizzard may have, they know going in that if they don’t bring equal levels of awesome to ALL the other classes, they WILL hear about it later in the forums, at BlizzCon Q&As, on blogs, wherever.

So even putting aside the issue of class balance and having a button that sics FIVE Hunter pets on a target to nom nom nom them, by bringing out Stampede, Blizzard would be committing to coming up with at least one new class-specific ability for every other class that would be just as freaking awesome. And then balancing ALL of them.

PLUS a new Race and Class thrown in!

Now, between you and me, I feel that setting the goal of coming up with awesome new kickass OMIGOD stuff should be at the top of the brainstorming board.

You shouldn’t set yourself the goal of ‘meeting expectations with more of the same’. Not when you are bringing the next expansion to your product. It should be, dare I say it, expansive? You should be challenging yourself to push the limits, to make your customers say, “Holy shit, that is going to ROCK!!”

Stampede, on the Hunter front, is one of those things that, as a Hunter, you would say, “Holy shit, that would totally ROCK!”

I truly hope that Blizzard really is keeping silent on core class abilities because they are trying to dream up that one special class ability for each class that all specs can share, available at max level, that is a Stampede-level holy shit “that is so going to ROCK!” moment.

That is what I hope.

But these are hopes and dreams and wishes and wingéd goldfish. They are the stuff of candyfloss and hot summer days you wish would last forever.

Don’t build it up too much in your mind. Any dreaming done now, any plans and speculation made based on BlizzCon statements or Blue posts is not just premature but counter-productive.

Whatever Blizzard creates will have to be balanced so it is not OP for burst damage in PvP, and so it does not bring that class higher in average overall DPS in comparison to other classes. So go ahead and dream of useful and fun and neat abilities, but keep your expectations in check.

Mists of Pandaria seems very ambitious in scope, so I think they are committed to building and improving WoW for at least the next few years, new MMO or no new MMO on the horizon. They might do a Stampede and a whole lot more for all classes.

But please, just relax for now. Get interested, but don’t get all crazy. We’ve been here before, we’ve seen the attempts to build early buzz in the month RIGHT before a massive new competitor MMO gets released.

Don’t buy into it until you see the five pets rush out on the screen and eat the entrails of your enemies like so much colored licorice.

I wonder, wouldn’t it be fun to have a thread requesting players to come up with their own wild ideas for new, outrageous class abilities in keeping with the spirit of Stampede? I mean, the hardest part is coming up with the creative idea, the implementation is, as John Ringo might say, ‘fiddly bits’.

Do you think you can do as good or better for your class? Do you think you can come up with that ‘holy shit that would ROCK!’ ability for your class to be on the same plane as Hunters with Stampede?

Tell you what. Contest right now say what?

Post your own imaginative idea for a new outrageous (but possible, damnit make it possible!) class ability in the comments down below, one that could hold it’s own in awesome with Stampede, and I will pick a couple of my favorites to give Big Bear Butt cafepress t-shirts to. I might use some real scientific and fair method of picking the winners, such as random number generators, or reading them all aloud to my 8 year old boy and letting him pick the ones he likes best, so you’re warned.

You want in? You’ve got until next Friday, November 18th, to make your comment on this post. Go for it!

And no, this totally is not a test to see who read all the way to the end of the Bearwall. Would I do that?

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43 thoughts on “This be some crazy sh*t, mon”

There are a lot of awesome ideas here! Had to chime in with my own little thought for my favorite class ever, the Beastmastery Hunter.

Call of the Jungle

The hunter lets loose with a loud Tarzan-style yell, summoning the aid of all neutral and friendly beasts and critters within 50 yards. Would work like Volley used to, with a target circle. Each beast or critter would target a random enemy in said target circle. Affected beasts and critters would retain their natural abilities and dps, with a “Jungle Frenzy” boost based on a percentage of the Hunters RAP. Duration of 10 seconds, after which the beasts would wander back to their “homes” as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. 5 minute cd.

I haz more, and this time for…hmm…shaman!
Next to my feral druid tanky, I love my resto shaman!

And another all spec one!

Discipline of the Earth:
The shaman’s mind, sharpened by the whispers of Wind, tempered by the heat of Fire, polished by the waves of Water, turns to Earth for protection. Stone engulfs the shaman, breaking all effects that remove control of your character and rendering you immune to Fear and Mind Control effects for 10 seconds. The shaman may remain inside the stone shield for up to ten seconds, protected from 99% of damage, but if they choose to break the effect early, the shell shatters, sending shrapnel in all directions and dealing X AoE damage in a 15 yard radius around the shaman. The earlier the shaman breaks the shield, the more damage is done.

Now, I’m not going to compete with some of those awesome ideas above me.

However, I see what you are getting at with this post. But just because an ability will be inevitably balanced doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look forward to it. Mean, on the other hand, could you imagine if they remained ‘OP’? They, and very little in this game, is actually designed to be OP. If they did, then could you imagine the crying around the forums and such then? “Oh this game is broken, what happened to balancing like in the old days”. Though, your right that we shouldn’t expect anything we get to be amazingly strong so that nothing will stand in our way, the game doesn’t work like that.

Right. I guess, for a TL;DR version, I’d say “Just remember that no matter how awesome it sounds, don’t be disappointed when it doesn’t make you OP. Relax, take a deep breath, and enjoy the awesome that you do get.”

Oh lord… that wouldn’t be a fair test, since I don’t have but like 6 pets on this character. Now, you want a REAL challenge… having him pick the his favorite 5 pets from my non-combat pets to form my PokeWoW combat team.

Druid Guardian – Bear Hug : You charge at your target, extending your front paws around it. You immobilizes the target for 3 sec while doing XX crush damage per second. All enemies within a 5 yards range of the target will be knock backed and dazed for 3 sec. The Bear Hug can’t be resisted, parried, blocked or interrupted in any way (PVP trinket included).

Druid Feral – Feral Frenzy : You leap at up to five enemy targets, pouncing from target to target, in a 20 yards range, inflicting heavy bleed damage for 8 sec. If less than 5 targets are in range, an additional stack of the bleeding effect will be inflicted to one of the affected targets. Stacks up to 5 times. Each stack does bleed damage equal to 4% of your target’s maximum health, every 2 sec.

Druid Balance – Eye of the Storm : You are surrounded by heavy winds, inflicting elemental damage to every enemy target in a 20 yards radius around you, while slowing their movement speed by 50% and hit chances by 15%. Damage scales with proximity (the closer you are to the druid, the harder it hits!). During Eye of the Storm, targets entering melee range are knocked 15 yards back.

Druid Restoration – Keeper of the Grove : You call to the power of Nature, creating a circle (10 yards radius) of plants and tree, around your current position. While standing in that zone, your healing is increased by 100%, the range of your healing spells is increased by 75% and every heal done will affect all friendly players in a radius of 20 yards around your target for 40% of the amount healed. Lasts 20 sec.

I’m still struggling to get past imagining a stamped of pets on the battlefield. I’m not sure what would look better … being sent by my hunter down on some unsuspecting player or being the unsuspecting player and turning with horror to see them come at me.

* not sure if this is special or not, but I would love it if all classes could “climb” or “Mountaineering”. Maybe a 4th profession or maybe in leu of one – allows one to climb trees to get off the ground or climb the sides of steep hills, move faster over rough terrain, etc. it could increase sta or agi or maybe both. And in the case of clothies – increase sta or int or maybe both. One would need climbing rope (made by tailors) and of course pitons and rock hammers (made by engineers). This would be available at lvl 5. Of course once flying comes into being, maybe it is of no use.

* Tailors and Leather Workers and BS’s – can tint or colour any armour or cloth from it’s original colour. Its it green, you can turn it black or yellow.

* Hunters able to tame anything that walks, flies or crawls as companion pets and sell them.

I guess these are not special abilites per say, but I would like to see them added.

Seconding all of these. Mountaineering would still be useful in dungeons and caves where flight isn’t permitted, and it would be awesome before flight. You could use high level Mountaineering to climb on the ceilings, even.

…in fact, I’d say it could introduce some great new dungeons. I always imagine nooks and crannies in dungeons that permit a sneaky character to do unique things. More D&D influence, really, especially for Rogues. Enough with the “melee DPS”, let’s get to some proper Rogue sneaky sneakery.

Druid – dream step – become semi-opaque and phase out during combat. cant be targeted or target others during dream step.
Druid – herb gather maximum! – harvest all herbs in the zone at once.. Just kidding. Everyone hates that druids can fly and herb at the same time and Taurens have speed too ;P.
Mage – borrow – gain timed access to target’s available attacks and abilities
Worlock – shut down – remove random ability or attack from target, only can remove 1 at a time.

The coolest thing we can think up for our favourite specs? Awesome! Lemme see…

Warrior: Power of the Titans

Prot – Titanic Defense. In an act of defiance and noble sacrifice, the warrior swells to about the size of a heroic boss, forcing all surrounding enemies to attack the warrior and reducing all damage taken. Basically, a combined challenging shout and sheild wall but with a cool giantification visual – no more staring at the crotch of your enemy. Look ‘im right in the eye and while he’s reeling from surprise headbutt ‘im into submission.

Arms – Titan’s Hammer. With a yell of purest rage the warrior raises his weapon (now glowing with unburdened fury) above his head and brings it crashing to the ground causing the ground around the target to shake, damaging+stunning the target and damaging/interrupting all enemies within a 5 yard radius of the target. I’m envisaging something like an earthy version of a thunderclap/shockwave visual for the actual damage bit. A bit of an interrupt and some AoE for those of us that prefer a heftier weapon and know how to swing it efficiently.

Fury – Titan’s Wrath. The warrior throws caution to the winds and throws him/herself fully into the battle, becoming an unstoppable force of blades and death. Unheeding of defense at the expense of speed and viciousness, the warrior burns though all pent up rage and his/her blades seem to blur through the air as attack speed increases and every strike finds the target. Visually, I’m not sure. Maybe all swings are actually faster and the weapons really do appear to blur in the air? It should drain all rage, but duration will depend on how much rage was there to begin with and like most of the temporary damage boost ablities it should increase damage received a bit. I’m guessing this could be the trickiest of them all to balance, but it’s more or less a situational burst damage ability that allows us to really USE those dual wielders we’ve been toting around. I’d envisage it stacking with other speed boosting effects like flurry. So what if we have to give up a bit of survivability for it – isn’t that why the tank is 5 times larger than us now?

All of these are likely on a lengthy CD. Maybe with some glyphing we could get that down a bit.

Ah, darn it all to heck! Now I actually want to play all these abilities just to try them out.

My suggestions for an “OP”, or “Special”, ability for all classes:
(incoming wall of text….sorry)

General rules across all classes
* None of the following abilities can be used during Heroism, Bloodlust, etc or in conjunction with other cooldowns.
* All abilities are active for 15 seconds with a 10 minute cooldown.
* Player takes no damage, or suffers no pushback, for duration of ability.

Hunter – All Specs – Stampede
• Calls out all 5 pets at once
• Pets limited to basic attack (smack, bite, claw) and one special (toss, lockjaw, rabid, etc.)
• This is a channeled ability and pets do 200% of Hunter’s AP in damage (200% damage is combined and not for each pet)

Warlock – All Specs – Demonic Force
• Calls out all demons to targeted area, except Infernal and Doomguard
• Demons limited to basic attack and one special
• This is a channeled ability and demons do 200% of Warlock’s SP in damage (200% damage is combined and not for each demon)

Mage – All Specs – Mirrored Mirage
• Calls forth 6 images of Mage to targeted area
• Images mimick Mage’s attacks/spells but Mage’s SP is reduced by 50%, while images receive no reduction…Or
• This is a channeled ability and images do 200% of Mage’s SP in damage for their normal attack/spell (200% damage is combined and not for each image)

Shaman – All Specs – Mother Nature’s Fury
• Drop a totem that is immune to all types of damage that calls forth a Wind, Water, Fire and Earth Elemental
• Elementals do damage based on 200% of Shaman’s AP/SP
• Shaman’s AP/SP reduced by 50% while totem is active, but Elementals receive no reduction
• For Resto Shamans this totem could just increase the Shaman’s SP by 200% for duration since Restos don’t necessarily need Elementals to do damage. Or, it could still summon one of each of the above Elementals that would provide 200% resistance for raid/party dependant on type of Elemental (Fire Ele for Fire resist, Wind for Shadow resist, Water for Frost resist and Earth for Nature resist).

Druid – All Specs – Forestation
• Calls forth 6 Treants to fight along side Druid with a special attack based on Druid’s current spec
• Feral = Whipping Limbs – Treants lash out with branches doing damage based on 200% of Druid’s AP (200% damage is combined and not for each treant)
• Balance = Burning Branches – Treants cast Wrath and damage is based on 200% of Druid’s SP (200% damage is combined and not for each treant)
• Restoration = Falling Leaves – Treants shower raid/party, within 35 yards, with “falling leaves” healing them based on 200% of Druid’s SP (200% is combined and not for each treant)
• Druid is still able to attack/heal during duration at a 50% reduction in AP/SP, but treants receive no reduction…Or,
• This is a channeled ability and treants do 200% of Druid’s AP/SP in damage/healing (200% damage is combined and not for each treant)

Deathknight – All Specs – Legion of Death
• Calls forth a “Legion of Death” (similar to Army of the Dead) but they only attack the target that the DK is attacking/targeting.
• Legion mimicks the DK’s attacks and they do 200% of DK’s AP in damage
• DK’s AP is reduced by 50%, but Legion receives no reduction

Paladin – All Specs – Hand of God (or replace “God” with whatever name of a WoW God fits best with Paladins…I’m not familiar with WoW lore)
• Paladin casts an improved version of Consecration that does 200% of Paladin’s AP/SP in damage/healing
• Paladin can move while ability is active and Consecration follows Paladin
• Damage/Healing affects all targets within 20 yards of Paladin

I’ve never played a Rogue or Warrior, so I have no idea as to what kind of “Special Ability” would suit them.

I am truly impressed by the amount of thought and creative design that went into these. Forestation in particular appeals to me, as bringing more direct connection with the arboreal nature aspects of druids.

Thank you! To be honest, it only took me about 10-15 minutes after reading your topic to come up with those. I tried to keep them as even-keeled as I could. The Druid stuff was the first I thought of, after the hunter stuff, because my “now main” is my Resto Druid. (used to be my hunter…lol) My Druid is my only raiding toon, but I leveled him as Balance and only recently have been giving kitty form a try. I love all specs the Druid has….so I just “had” to create his OP ability right off the bat…hahahaa

No idea why, but I always wanted a trained pet ferret for my rogue.
He could pickpocket enemies, distract them or run up their trouserleg for a short duration fear…
Not exactly epic, but somehow I feel it would be appropriately rogue-ish.

LOL, always wanted a fert or two as a pet for my hunters and rogue. Even Sweet Bob and Miss Peachy would like to see this 🙂 And for their specail, they would hop around doing the wild weasle wardance, dooking their hearts out!

Druid – Keeper of the Grove Form
The druid becomes the embodiment of nature itself, possessing rage, mana and energy and being able to use abilities from all of her forms. The druid also gains 50% movement speed for the duration.

Paladin: Empowered Aura
This spell could work across specs, like Guardian of Ancient Kings.
Range: 100 yards.
Cooldown: 7 minutes.

Protection: Health amongst affected targets is restored through healing received by the caster.Retribution: Affected targets gain Holy Empowerment, copying the next 3 spells with 50% reduced effect.Holy: Increases healing received by affected targets by 10%.

Shaman:
Not all classes need a spell that works across specs, so I’ve thought of 3 spells, one for each Shaman spec.

Restoration:Healing Tsunami: Delivers a cone of healing waters in front of the caster. (Yes, a bland copy of a paladin’s Light of Dawn, but imagine the coolness of a huge water wave coming over the raid!)

Elemental:Lava Pool: Creates a pool of lava at the specified location, dealing damage over time and slowing targets caught in its effects by 30%. (This could replace Earthquake)

Enhancement:Greater Wind Elemental: Increases attack power and speed by 20% for x seconds. (This spell could also affect raid members nearby)
Or, alternatively…Spirit of the Wolf: Transforms the caster into a Feral Spirit, increasing movement speed by 70%, attack power and speed by 20% for x seconds.

Warrior:Leap Attack: Leap to your target, unleashing a powerful attack. (A step up from Heroic Leap, and more of a copy from Diablo II)

Priest:
Lifegrip being useful as it is, I thought of a variation that could be cool.Spirit Swap: Switch locations with your target, also reducing damage taken by you and your target 20% for 6 seconds.

(If the formatting on this comment sucks, I’m sorry, but I’m on a text-based browser so I can’t really see.)

[b]Windfury Strike[/b] (Shaman)
Unleash the full power of the Windfury, striking the enemy with each weapon in your primary backpack for X% weapon damage.

[b]Defile[/b] (Death Knight)
Defile the area under the target, dealing Shadow damage per second to all enemies within the area. Every time an enemy takes damage from this effect, the damage and size of the area increases.(Unlike the Lich King’s version, this one lasts for significantly less time and has a cap on maximum size. Still, guaranteed fun in battlegrounds)

[b]Possess[/b] (Priest)
Possess a humanoid enemy, taking control of their body for 45 seconds (8 seconds in PvP).(Basically, works like Mind Control, except that the priest is invisible, untargetable and immune to everything while channeling the spell – oh, and the range is 100 yards)

[b]Titanic Throwdown[/b] (Warrior)
Grab the enemy target by the throat and hurl them into the targetted area within 8-35 yards, stunning both the hurled enemy and all enemies in the impact zone for 3 seconds.

[b]Space Warp[/b] (Mage)
Bends the laws of space-time continuum, allowing all raid and party members to cast while moving and perform melee attacks from up to 30 yards away for 45 seconds. Causes Spatial Exhaustion for 10 minutes, incompatible with Bloodlust/Heroism and equivalents thereof.

Warlock
Possession – The Warlock summons a demon to possess the body of the target. The target’s melee, ranged and casting speeds are slowed down by 15% while the debuff is active. They also take 4% of their total health as damage, every 4 seconds.
If the target dies while under the effect of the debuff, their body is reanimated by the demon inside to serve the Warlock for 1 minute. An opposing player killed this way will be able to resurrect at a graveyard, but not at their body.

Also, did anyone else think of Rhonin when you mentioned the army of T-Rex’s? Totally going with an army of raptors now.

Well… something that would make me super excited but not in an epic fashion… but being able to fish in Bear/Cat/Wolf form, using the same animation and so forth. But darn it, a bear should be able to fish! I would pick up fishing in a heart beat on my driud and shaman 😉

As for a new ability:
Priest – Holy
Fist of the Light: No longer just being subject to passive healing arts, this ability brings a divine smack down as a large fist comes from the sky and crushes an enemy target for XX damage. If the tank is going to complain about not healing, the fist of the light also lets out some glittery sparkling magic to heal XX over 10 seconds to 5 targets in the raid.

Arcane Chains
Wraps the target in shimmering, constricting chains of arcane energy.
Each casting puts one stack of Arcane Chains on a target, up to a maximum of 10 stacks.
Each stack of AC does 1% of the target’s max health/5 seconds as a DoT, and slows the target by 5%.
If the target dies from AC damage, the chains leap to the next available target, applying 80% of the previous target’s stacks instantly.

The long-lost strength and fury of the Ancients of old is summoned to your side, enhancing your shapeshift forms. Guardians change into a massive turtle, massively reducing damage done to them (70%? 80%) for however many seconds. Balance turn into ancient stormcrows, causing lightning to strike the ground around them. Feral changes into wolves and summon a pack of wolves to swarm their target. Restoration causes the earth around them to explode with life (something like that vanity item from the Molten Front) doing some sort of healingy thingy!